Ryan Gosling ditches The Lovely Bones

Mark Wahlberg steps into the role…

It’s actor roundabout time for Peter Jackson on The Lovely Bones as Ryan Gosling has left the film one day before it was about to start shooting.

It’s a strange turn of events – chalked up to the usual standby of “creative differences”, but more unusual since Gosling had already gained 20 pounds and grown a beard for the role.

Luckily for Jackson, Mark Wahlberg was available and, after a quick squint at the script, signed yesterday to take the role of Jack Salmon, the grieving father of the dead girl who narrates the tale from the beyond.

And it’ll bring the Shooter star back to Pennsylvania, where he’s just finished work on M Night Shyamalan’s latest, The Happening. Score another A-list director for Wahlberg’s collection. And as for Gosling?

Who knows why he decided to jump ship, but he might end up regretting giving up the chance to work with Jackson. Still, at least PJ knows what it’s like to switch actors suddenly – it happened on the Lord Of The Rings with Stuart Townsend and Viggo Mortensen, after all…